The CHA Winter 2015 Report

So...I'm about a month late on my CHA report.  I have a good excuse.  In the month of January I flew on NINE airplane trips -- four of them into California.  I'm a bit road weary as you can imagine.  But, I've been home for a few days and I've had time to edit photos and gather my thoughts.

Every January the Craft & Hobby Association hosts their CHA show.  It's a giant trade show for craft and hobby manufacturers, retailers, and designers.  There are classes -- the how-to topics are varied, from instagram to glue.  There are parties -- public, private, work-related, and purely social.  There are manufacturer's booths -- displaying product, offering demos, taking sales from retailers.

I took a peek through my blog archives (you can too, either using the "archive" button on the top right or the search box at the bottom of the right column) and I discovered that I've been attending CHA since January 2009.  That kind of blew me away.  If I'm counting correctly that makes this the SEVENTH Winter CHA show I've attended.  Whoa.  I've played a variety of roles at the show in that time: buyer, demo artist, teacher, licensed designer, booth haver (is that a term?), presenter, walker....  Every show is a different show for me.

This year, I helped set up the Brother ScanNCut booth.  Set-up day is a crazy event.  Lots of forklifts and huge shipping containers.  Everyone is dressed in their very worst because it's all about manual labor.

This may be the worst group photo ever.  I think at least three of us have our eyes closed.  But, this was an awesome set-up crew!  We made it happen.

We did run into one little problem....

It wasn't in the plans, but when we saw that huge electrical cord, we didn't have a choice.  We had ScanNCuts, adhesive and cardstock.  So, we made flowers!  Crafters can always solve a problem, right!?

I love how the flowers turned out!

I spent most of the show in the Brother ScanNCut booth...

...doing demos and answering questions.  I also taught a ScanNCut class:

50 students, each with their own ScanNCut, and 20 Japanese engineers watching from the back.  It was pure craziness!

I (of course) made it over to the Crafter's Workshop Booth to hang out with my new stencils and all the samples I made...

While I was there I recorded a few quick videos...

As soon as I see stencils hitting the internet shelves, I will begin sharing some images and ideas!  Promise!!

I went by the Impression Obsession booth...

...to see my new stamps!  Yay!  (Lots of info and tutorials coming your way soon!  They're all based on hand carved stamps of mine!)  

I also stopped by the Ranger booth to see my contribution to their designer challenge (more on that on Monday):

As always, my Mom came with me to CHA.

She and I managed to pose with lots of the cool displays...

...lots of the cool people...

...and each other...

It was a great trip!  Thank you to everyone who stopped by to say hello!  Now I need to sleep for a million years.

Thanks for stopping by!